Smart Meters

Overview

A word of advice, when you see a new program come along with a name that contains a word like "Smart" or "Community", put up your guard and hang onto your wallet.

Wind is potentially an electric grid keeper's worst nightmare because the grid keeper must match electrical supply with electrical demand, and erratic wind holds too many surpises. For example, the whole state of Maine could be experiencing strong winds and then rather suddenly, the wind dies down.

When the supply can't be depended upon as it can with a source like natural gas, an alternate way to match up supply and demand is to control the demand. Enter the smart meter.

"A smart grid would allow the integration of variable energy sources like wind and solar. For example, if electricity output dropped suddenly due to a change in wind generation, the grid could dim the lights in big box stores by 20%, a change most people don't perceive, say Don Von Dollen, program manager for the IntelliGrid project at the Electric Power Research Institute".

The more you learn about the so called smart meter, including its demand-regulating role within "central planning's" grand vision, the more it smarts. You don't really need that air conditioner on just because it's 95 degrees and humid and you are trying to sleep, now do you?

This section is an opportunity to put some sunlight on smart meters.

Please also take a look at the website of the "Smart Meter Safety Coalition", which deals primarily with the health, security and privacy issues surrounding smart meters.

October 8, 2011. On October 4, 2011, Health Canada issued a warning for those under the age of 18 to limit their cell phone use. Click here for document. This warning comes 5 months (May 31, 2011) after the World Health Organization classified radio frequency radiation as a possible human carcinogen and it comes more than a year after cell phone providers issued warnings about the use of cell phones in their user manuals.

If Health Canada truly cared about the health of Canadians, this is what they would do.

2. They would issue an immediate ban on wireless baby monitors that emit radio frequency radiation 24/7 and would insist that only “voice activated” baby monitors be sold in Canada. These are available in Europe. Click here for more information.

3. They would issue an immediate ban on cordless phones that emit radiation 24/7 and insist that only ECO DECT plus phones (or those that emit radiaton only when in use) be sold in Canada. These are common in Europe and are now available in North America.

4. They would ask cell phone providers who have installed cell phone antennas on top of buildings or on the side of buildings to ensure that the radiation does not leak through to the roof or the walls and that nearby buildings are not within the line of radiation. Shielding on the roof or wall can eliminate exposure to occupants. This should be done by the cell phone provider. Levels should not exceed those recommended in Switzerland for “sensitive places.”

5. They would request independent monitoring of antennas placed on or near school property and they would ensure that levels not exceed those recommended in Switzerland for “sensitive places.”

6. They would remove the ban on incandescent light bulbs and insist that compact fluorescent light bulbs be designed so they do not emit UV radiation, dirty electricity or radio frequency radiation and that the bulbs are shatter-proof so that the mercury is not released into the environment during accidental breakage.

7. They would reconsider the deployment of wireless smart meters and determine ways to send the information along wires instead.

8. They would identify and enforce certain places that remain wireless-free (similar to smoke-free environments). This is particularly important in public places (schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, libraries) and on public transit (buses, trains, airplanes).

9. They would reduce their exposure guidelines and base these new guidelines on biological effects rather than just thermal effects.

10. They would establish health clinics to deal with the growing number of people complaining about electrohypersensitivity and provideeducational packages for doctors and other health care professionals.

If Health Canada truly cared about the Health of Canadians, they could be leaders in this field be adopting the recommendations above.

11/4/11 - Taming Unruly Wind Power - here we see one policy error, industrial wind, begetting a second policy error attempting to fix error # 1, all to be at ratepayer expense. Good money after bad. Note that this approach rejects the idea that wind is a bad idea and that there are better solutions to our energy future than relying on a failed centuries old power source that will never be viable short of changing the very laws of physics. While there is no mention of smart meters in this article, it is the same thing - Big Brother right in your home, messing with electricity demand because with wind, it loses control of electricity supply.

Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Taming Unruly Wind Power

Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times

A wind farm near Ellensburg, Wash. Utilities have asked homeowners to help store excess energy to protect the grid.

Published: November 4, 2011

For decades, electric companies have swung into emergency mode when demand soars on blistering hot days, appealing to households to use less power. But with the rise of wind energy, utilities in the Pacific Northwest are sometimes dealing with the opposite: moments when there is too much electricity for the grid to soak up.

Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times

Theresa and Bruce Rothweiler are in one program.

So in a novel pilot project, they have recruited consumers to draw in excess electricity when that happens, storing it in a basement water heater or a space heater outfitted by the utility. The effort is rooted in some brushes with danger.

In June 2010, for example, a violent storm in the Northwest caused a simultaneous surge in wind power and in traditional hydropower, creating an oversupply that threatened to overwhelm the grid and cause a blackout.

As a result, the Bonneville Power Administration, the wholesale supplier to a broad swath of the region, turned this year to a strategy common to regions with hot summers: adjusting volunteers’ home appliances by remote control to balance supply and demand.

When excess supply threatens Bonneville’s grid, an operator in a control room hundreds of miles away will now dial up a volunteer’s water heater, raising the thermostat by 60 more degrees. Ceramic bricks in a nearby electric space heater can be warmed to hundreds of degrees.

The devices then function as thermal batteries, capable of giving back the energy when it is needed. Microchips run both systems, ensuring that tap-water and room temperatures in the home hardly vary.

“It’s a little bit of that Big Brother control, almost,” said Theresa Rothweiler, a teacher’s aide in the Port Angeles, Wash., school system who nonetheless signed up for the program with her husband, Bruce, a teacher.

She said she had been intrigued by an ad that Bonneville placed in the local paper that asked consumers to help enable the grid to absorb more renewable energy, especially wind.

“We’re always looking at ways to save energy, or be more efficient or green, however you want to put it,” said Ms. Rothweiler, who worries about leaving the planet a livable place for her 21-year-old daughter, Gretchen. Bonneville paid for the special technology, which runs around $1,000 per home.

The initial goal of Bonneville’s pilot program is to gain experience in charging and “discharging” the water heaters and space heaters to see how much response operators can count on as the use of these thermal batteries expands.

Mark K. Lauby, director of reliability assessment at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which enforces standards on the grid, said that such storage innovations would be “the holy grail” as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy.

While the threat of excess supply is most severe in the Pacific Northwest, other regions may land in the same situation in coming years because a surplus would threaten to destabilize the electric system as much as a shortage.

That would be harder if it had to turn off the wind machines on their best generating days to prevent the grid from being overwhelmed.

For decades, the Bonneville Power Administration rarely had a problem with excess supply. Its backbone is hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, and while the operators must often run all of the falling water through its power-producing turbines for environmental reasons, the grid could adjust the supply by turning off fossil fuel plants.

That balance began to shift over the last few years as entrepreneurs built hundreds of wind machines nearby in the Columbia River Gorge, an area that utility executives now call a “wind ghetto.” While the wind turbines produce electricity far below their capacity most hours of the year, they get busy when a storm rolls through, which is when river flows are highest, too.

The agency can simply shut down the wind machines, and it did so intermittently this summer when excess power threatened the grid. But that angered the wind operators, who earn money from the electricity they sell and from tax and other credits based on their production.

This June, several wind companies appealed Bonneville’s policy to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, calling it discriminatory, and in August they filed a federal court challenge that is still pending.

For Bonneville, the full dangers of excess supply first hit home during the June 2010 emergency, when a severe storm whipped through the region. The transmission network had so much powerthat the agency turned off all its fossil fuel generation, gave electricity away to neighboring networks and even told the system’s only nuclear plant to slash its production by 78 percent, a highly unusual step.

Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times

When excess supply threatens the grid, a volunteer's water heater can be turned into a battery.

The region squeaked through, but the agency was stretching its resources “to their limits,” said Doug Johnson, a spokesman for Bonneville. At one point the system was running almost entirely on renewable energy.

“This is probably about the only place in the country where that could happen,” said Michael Milstein, another spokesman with the agency.

The problem was complicated by environmental rules involving the hydroelectric dams.

The dams were built with spillways, or paths where operators can divert water without passing it through the power-producing turbines. But when the water goes through the spillways, it picks up nitrogen bubbles that can kill juvenile fish, so there are strict limits on their use.

Operators can usually keep the system in balance without excessive use of spillways, but in the June 2010 case, they were coping with as many as 2,000 megawatts of wind power, roughly double Seattle’s power use or what two nuclear plants can deliver.

Wind installations have grown since then. So Bonneville began advertising for volunteers to accept extra electricity, mainly homeowners with electric heat and with water heaters of recent vintage.

Plumbers install a mixing valve on the water heaters to keep the faucet temperature safe, and new wiring and a small computer keep track of energy flows.

The agency says that some 200 homes will soon have the adapted water heaters, space heaters or both. In hundreds more, it is installing more traditional controls that will allow it to turn water heaters off. Another utility in the region, Portland General Electric, is about to begin a similar program paid for by the federal Energy Department.

For the time being, the storage devices collectively can absorb the output of only a handful of wind turbines.

A 100-gallon home water heater can store about 26 kilowatt-hours, or about a day’s worth of electricity for a typical house, or less if the house relies on electricity for heat.

The ceramic bricks in the space heater can store 40 kilowatt-hours, or more in some larger configurations. The heat can be drawn off by passing air and delivered to living spaces by a fan, with the bricks also functioning as a thermal battery.

Some of this equipment dates from the late 1980s and was originally designed for offering “time of use” rates, so that a homeowner could buy electricity during hours when it was cheaper and store it. But coordination over a broad area by a utility to manage regional flows is new.

One nagging question is who will pay for the installations if they are carried out on a larger scale.

While Bonneville pays for them now, Philip D. Lusk, the power resources manager for the utility department of the city of Port Angeles — the Rothweilers’ retail supplier — said the agency might have to find additional ways of compensating consumers to get the thousands of volunteers it will eventually need to make the system effective.

If the installations are judged to benefit everyone because they improve stability, the cost might be spread among all ratepayers. But if Bonneville decides that they mainly benefit the wind generators because they never have to unplug their turbines, the agency could try to charge that industry.

Either way, said Mr. Johnson, the Bonneville spokesman, the agency will have to come up with a solution to “the cranky nature of wind.”

Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Stewards of the environment are often the first to find conflicts with man-made technologies that outpace safety standards. “Smart” electric meters, the devices Central Maine Power (CMP) is currently installing, are one such technology. There are a number of reasons for concern with CMP’s smart meter program.

Probably the two biggest issues are adverse health effects and infringement on the constitutional (Fourth amendment) right to privacy. CMP’s meters communicate by wireless radiofrequency non-ionizing radiation (man-made RF radiation). Thousands of studies of the effects of man-made radiation on plants, animals and humans have been alarming.

The unusual signaling characteristics and higher power intensities of radiofrequency (RF) radiation are very different from naturally occurring radiation. Data increasingly show RF radiation from cell phones, smart meters and other wireless devices cause adverse health effects in humans, including cancer. Recently the World Health Organization elevated non-ionizing [not heat producing] RF to their possible carcinogen status.

Personal data gathered by smart meters raises constitutionally related privacy issues including identity theft, determination of personal behavior patterns, determination of specific appliances used, real-time surveillance, information from residual data, targeted and or accidental home invasions and censorship. In the old days, one needed probable cause and a search warrant to collect this information.

Smart Meter Safety Coalition members have researched these issues extensively and have all been complainants before the Public Utilities Commission. Coalition members have worked and continue working hard to educate and inform Mainers on this issue.

Growing movements are spreading rapidly across the country in opposition to the widespread deployments of smart meters, deployments fueled in large part by state funding from the Department of Energy. More and more critics are calling this a massive experiment on the American people and a problem that may become the next asbestos or second-hand smoke.

So we have an Ice Storm and over 400,000 meters all send out signals about the same time and then they all go silent what the heck does the power company do with that info "NOTHING" because people will not call in to let them know the power is out because the smart meter already did it. I spent over 20 years doing data and communications and what sounds good goes down the tubes far to often when the system gets overwhelmed with info. You can ping all you want
and you would get over 400,000 no hits and all the pin headed data infopeople would be clueless as to what is going on or in fact , saw it before , the entire data system crashes due to a data overload because "That can't be true that we have that many failures.". The end result can be an over dependence upon computer generated info that will cause more delays. By the way in case no one realizes this one of the biggest dangers the utility workers now face is voltage
back feeding from houses because people don't spend money to put in a full transfer switch to connect a generator in their house. Many just plug cords from the generator into outlets in the house so it feeds rooms. Unless the circuit breakers are turned off the voltage will go back out through the meter which means the meter will send a signal that it is up. A smart meter is only smart in a perfect world.

Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Maine public advocate: CMP's 'smart' meters may cause interference

AUGUSTA — The Maine Office of the Public Advocate is warning Central Maine Power Co. customers that their new wireless "smart" electrical meters could be interfering with other electronic equipment.

CMP is replacing 620,000 traditional meters as part of a smart grid program supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. This will eliminate the company's need to read the meters manually, and provide customers the ability to track their electricty use in real time.

Public Advocate Eric Bryant said CMP has received 251 complaints regarding radio-frequency interference from customers since the Maine Public Utilities Commission required the electric company to keep a log of the complaints earlier this year.

"This is the result of many complaints filed recently with the Public Utilities Commission," Bryant said. "In this case, (the PUC) didn't open an investigation, probably because CMP showed that they were helping people who were complaining about this problem."

CMP has a section on its website dedicated to radio-frequency interference, and suggests customers who are experiencing the problem separate the device and the smart meter, adjust the position of the antenna if there is one, and move the wireless device away from any walls that might absorb the signal. Some devices utilize the same channels as the smart meters, and adjustment of those channels can fix the problem.

"We're concerned here that there's 200 or so customers that called CMP, and we're concerned there are other customers out there who might not realize the interference they're experiencing is from the smart meters," Bryant said.

Customers with further questions can call CMP at 1-877-887-0356, Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., or go to www.vsimeterservices.com and click on the postcard icon.

Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

These so-called Smart Meters are supposed to save us money.
Well, none of this savings has been proven, and in fact, there are some pretty important people saying that they think the savings simply aren’t going to happen. (Source.)
- It costs too much, and we’re not sure what good it will do. – John Rowe, CEO of Illinois utility ComEd.
- “[Smart meter] deployment . . . allows utilities to lower operating costs while increasing revenues. – Frost & Sullivan
– No net economic benefit to ratepayers.” Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette (yea for my home state!)
– Smart-meter conversion represents little more than a boondoggle that is being foisted on consumers by the politically influential companies that make the hardware and software that are required for the smart-meter conversion. – Consumers Digest
In this poll, about 1/3 of the people who had Smart Meters installed had an increase in energy costs, and one quarter had them double, triple, or more.
Hmmm…doesn’t sound so good now, does it?

I do not trust someone controlling my home from far away... or nearby for that matter. I want to get off the grid in the worst way, and I do not want the state and corporations running roughshod over everybody . Solar should be on every roof top. The big companies do not want that, it would benefit the individual consumer and not them. I am hearing that two residents in Lincoln were told by BH that their solar and small wind turbine power should be shut off because of oversupply or lack of demand. This happens often. It is hearsay but probably true. A couple hunters were talking about listening to the turbines from their tree stands. They weren't happy, they wanted to listen for deer and all they heard was whooshing. Maybe they should have listened to the FoLL?

yes, Brad it is so terribly tragic and now they are scheduled to come to Oakfield and overlook our spectacular pristine lakes there..I too am broken hearted but a few of us are fighting..they are proposing 50 ...if anyone wants to help us let the DEP know we do not agree and speak from your own experience or if you have ever come to Island Falls to fish or kayak on Lake Mattawamkeag or Pleasant Lake please write Jessica.damon@maine.gov before their decision day of Nov 28..too many people and too much wildlife are suffering for this. My great grandfather William Sewall was born when the natives were here and said they were the best workers on his logging crews- he was a nature guide to TR and learned much of what he knew from the natives. So sad, So sad.

Donna, a lot of people share your comment about the photo of Mt. Katahdin. It is tragic, but it must be a wake up call to people before our incredible iconic mountain, revered as the place of the great spirit by our native tribes, is encircled by these dastardly machines. I grew up in Lincoln with that view, and I shed tears of sadness and rage when I took the photo from the north end of Rollins Mt.

To clarify: Thermal brick space heaters and water heaters do not "store" the electricity.

Electricity is turned into heat by resistance, and the bricks (or water) store the heat, which can be used to heat the house later as needed. The use of the term "battery" is misleading. Batteries store elecricity to be used later as electricity.

Decades ago, my sister and her a family lived in a seaside Scottish cottage for a year, Such a space heater warmed the cottage. It was a common device there.

A century ago our ancestors used to go on wintertime buggy and sleigh rides with their feet on a flat slab of hot soapstone. The stone had been heated for hours on a wood stove. This was much better than nothing, and was a common practice in rural Maine.

The water or bricks store the heat. I don't think there is any practical way to convert that heat energy back into electrical energy.

It just seems that the whole thing is way too rushed and they really don't even know how to deal with the wind power once they've got it- how crazy. and the photo of Mt katahdin from Lincoln on your site is simply tragic...

Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

Not yet a member?

Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."Vince Lombardi